President Donald Trump this week angrily denied reports that he called Attorney General Jeff Sessions a "dumb southerner" -- but one former editor at the New York Post now says she's heard Trump use the phrase before.
Former Page Six editor Jeane MacIntosh tells the New York Times that Trump once told her that he planned on divorcing his second wife, Marla Maples, because he couldn't stand her southern family.
"Are you old enough to remember the show 'The Beverly Hillbillies?'" Trump said, according to MacIntosh. "That’s exactly her family, except they came to New York City instead of Beverly Hills."
MacIntosh says that Trump went on to explain that Maples was always being followed around by "an entourage of dumb Southerners," whom he proceeded to mock by putting on a fake southern accent.
In his new book -- titled "Fear: Trump in the White House" -- reporter Bob Woodward claims that Trump not only referred to Sessions as a "dumb southerner," but that he also referred to his own attorney general as "mentally retarded" while also bitterly complaining that he didn't go to an Ivy League law school.
The Republican-majority U.S. House of Representatives Friday morning passed HR 5, the "Parents' Bill of Rights," legislation similar to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' laws that have led to book bans and targeting of LGBTQ children.
The bill passed 213-208, with 14 Members not voting. All yes votes were from Republicans only. Five Republicans joined Democrats to vote no.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu of California warned the legislation "pits parents against parents."
"The extreme MAGA H.R. 5 bill will let other parents dictate what books your child gets to read. It'll make it easier for other parents to know if your child has an eating disorder, or is experiencing a mental health crisis," Lieu warned.
U.S> Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) warned, "H.R. 5 would codify Republican book bans all over the country. Stories of Holocaust survivors, enslaved Americans, and over 1,600 other stories have already been pulled from shelves."
U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) said HR5 is "a vehicle for hate and political nonsense."
Congressman Greg Murphy, Republican of North Carolina, in a recorded statement falsely claimed the bill was needed because "Children are being taught to hate our country," and "parents are labeled as domestic terrorists."
In his speech before the bill passed, Speaker Kevin McCarthy declared, "We believe parents should know what your children is [sic] learning."
CNN reports the bill would also "require elementary and middle schools that receive federal funding to obtain parental consent before 'changing a minor child’s gender markers, pronouns, or preferred name on any school form; or allowing a child to change the child’s sex-based accommodations, including locker rooms or bathrooms.'"
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the legislation “Orwellian to the core,” and promised it “will not see the light of day.”
Watch the videos above or at this link.
Uganda has passed one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ laws in the world, and U.S. evangelical groups had their hands all over it.
The East African nation has long pursued criminalizing homosexuality, and a draft version calls for the death penalty for "serial offenders" and other cases involving gay sex, and American religious organizations have invested millions of dollars to deepen homophobic views commonly held in the region, reported the Washington Post.
"In 2020, London-based OpenDemocracy found that more than 20 American religious organizations advocating against LGBTQ rights, safe abortion, access to contraceptives and comprehensive sex education had spent at least $54 million furthering their agendas in Africa since 2007," wrote foreign affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor. "Close to half that figure was spent in conservative, predominantly Christian Uganda alone, where religious advocates advocate for gay 'conversion therapy' and tout supposed success stories of 'ex-gay' people."
Evangelical pastor Scott Lively and other Americans delivered a series of lectures in Uganda almost 15 years ago that inflamed homophobia in the country, according to local LGBTQ rights activists, and his address to parliament promoted the idea that homosexuality was a Western-imported “disease” that could be spread to the country’s children.
IN OTHER NEWS: Rick Wilson: GOP primary is over and DeSantis is being 'nuked into a radioactive puddle by MAGA'
“This recasting of homosexuality as akin to pedophilia, alongside the widespread use of similar language, is meant to legitimize the response and crackdown by governments and institutions,” said Caleb Okereke, a Nigerian journalist.
Those same tactics are spreading back in the U.S., where Republican lawmakers have been targeting LGBTQ rights under the guise of protecting children from sex abuse, and Uganda serves as a warning.
“Ugandans have been radicalized into hatred for LGBTQ persons,” said Frank Mugisha, director of the LGBTQ rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda.
During an appearance on CNN on Friday morning, former White House attorney John Dean claimed Donald Trump will likely be put on the spot and regret the attacks he launched against Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his Truth Social account once he faces a judge.
On Thursday the former president raged all day long at the Manhattan DA who is expected to indict the former president soon, possibly next week. that culminated with a late threat of "death and destruction."
As Dean told host John Berman, any judge Trump will now face will be well aware of the former president's over-the-top violent rhetoric and may tie the twice-impeached president's hands with a gag order.
After mentioning the "death and destruction" post, host Berman asked, "What kind of situation do you think that creates?"
READ MORE: Rick Wilson: GOP primary is over and DeSantis is being 'nuked into a radioactive puddle by MAGA'
"I think it creates a very troubling situation for Mr. Trump when he goes in, if he is arraigned, and the judge is going to be made very aware of these statements," Dean claimed. "Recall that Roger Stone, the acolyte of Mr. Trump, was indicted and started putting the judge in crosshairs at one point on his line, on his online postings."
"This could be the same sort of thing where a judge has total power to just say 'listen, no more of that. You do that, you're in contempt of court,'" he elaborated. "They could shut down with a gag order Trump and stop this nonsense and these attacks and might well do so because they're already another case, a civil case, the E. Jean Carroll case that is about to go to trial and that judge decided he will keep the jury anonymous in that case because of the MAGA attacks."
Watch the video below or at this link.
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